Month: March 2014

“………The five Australian and international artists – Libia Castro, Ólafur Ólafsson, Charlie Sofo, Gabrielle de Vietri and Ahmet Ögüt – said in a statement they were withdrawing from the Biennale “in light of Transfield’s expanding management of Manus Island and Nauru immigration detention centres” and in response to the death of Mr Berati.

“We see our participation in the Biennale as an active link in a chain of associations that leads to the abuse of human rights. For us, this is undeniable and indefensible.”

A larger group of artists wrote to the Biennale board last week, demanding it sever ties with Transfield Holdings.

The five boycotting artists claim the board and Transfield indicated “there will be no movement on their involvement in this issue … that the issue is too complex, and that the financial agreements are too important to re-negotiate”.

The artists asked the Biennale of Sydney to acknowledge the protest by registering their withdrawal on its website and displaying signs at the site of the four absent projects. Two of the artists had submitted a joint work.

“In the pervasive silence that the government enforces around this issue, we will not let this action be unnoticed,” the artists said……..”.

About

Welcome to R.E.W.I.R.E.D. (part of the Rewire Project) This is an independent initiative from Gary Poulton, Visual Arts, Photography and Design Teacher, Sydney, NSW. The purpose of this site is to make available a range of resources for Visual Art, Photography and Design Educators. The primary orientation of the site is for NSW HSC Curriculum. The ‘original’ REWIRED site will continue to operate in conjunction with this site and will continue to have content updated, that differs to this site. Other sites include; Rewired@Edublogs, RewiredNow (Student sites), Photography@Rewired and iPhonography (a dedicated iphone photography site) See the About page for links to the sites mentioned in this introduction.